Tag: CKA

As we announced a few months ago, CKA will honor the Rookie of the Year in 2018. This award will go to the highest ranked 1st year angler in the series based on the aggregate of his or her 4 best event scores. In addition to other prizes the CKA 2018 Rookie of the Year will also receive an invite to the 2-day Tournament of Champions in mid-October.

We were very excited to see so many 1st time anglers sign up for the tournament at Hyco. It was great to meet so many new people interested in the sport and the CKA series. We hope to see more new folks in the mix as the season unfolds, too.

We will periodically update and publish the ROY standings. Here are the current Rookie Of The Year standings after Hyco. If you had a tough 1st event, remember that if you fish 5 events your bottom score is automatically dropped!

CKA Tournament #2

March 31, 2018

Lake Hickory

Welcome anglers to the 2nd CKA tournament of the 2018 season and thanks again to all who participated at Lake Hyco last month!

Our 2nd tournament of the season will be held on March 31st on Lake Hickory, a 4200 acre lake on the Catawba River chain. Hickory proved to be a surprise last season when we fished it for the first time on our tournament trail. The lake gave up several large limits during the post-spawn period and many anglers expressed an interest in fishing it again. So let’s see how it fishes during the pre-spawn/early spawn phase of the season. Let’s also see if CKA Tournament Director Wayne Butler – the only CKA staff member to ever win a single angler event – can defend his Hickory crown from last season or top the 58.5” limit he posted!

This is a Multi Launch event (the 5 ramps listed below are the only legal launches).

Anglers are to remain within 30 yards of the launch area prior to the 6:45am start time. Anglers may have kayaks in the water but will not be permitted to leave early to get to fishing areas.

Blank identifiers will be available for print approximately one week prior to the event (we recommend printing a few extras).

Unique identifier CODE will be released Friday 3/30 after 9:00pm EST. We will provide instructions at that time how to populate the identifier.

TourneyX sign up will be cutoff on Friday 3/30 at 10:00pm EST.

This will be the season’s first multi-launch event, so budget time for travel from your launch to check in. Remember you must be present at the Wittenburg check in by 3:15 pm.

Photographs will not be uploaded after that time, manually or otherwise.

While our Lake Hickory event (March 31) is next on the Trail schedule, the CKA Directors are always looking at opportunities for anglers to participate in additional events. This year we are excited to announce that we have paired with Kayak Bass Series (KBS) to offer (1) live event that will coincide with the CKA Event at High Rock Lake in April and (6) online events throughout 2018. If you pay the membership fee (not required for participation), you can enter the KBS AOY standings for the chance to fish the year end KBS Classic on the infamous Lake Fork in Texas.

KBS events will be judged using TourneyX and you can cross submit CKA fish at High Rock to the KBS board

Online events are $25 and the High Rock Live Event is $50.

There is a membership fee of $50 if you choose to compete for the Classic invite but it is not required.

4/14 – LIVE EVENT / HIGH ROCK LAKE (this is concurrent with the CKA event)

5/5 – ONLINE #3 SIZE IS EVERYTHING

5/26 – ONLINE #4 HOT SUMMER BASS

8/11 – ONLINE #5 ONE PLUS ONE = TWO

9/8 – ONLINE #6 BIG AND SMALL

Remember that Manley Fishing, a company affiliated with KBS, has also provided eight certificates for rods for us to give away at each CKA Event this season, so please sign up and thank them for their generosity! For more info, see the links below:

Our first event of 2018 came during a good warming spell that woke up the fish on local lakes. We had 74 anglers turn out to enjoy the weather and a good bite on Lake Hyco. This was our first event on the lake; the lake staff treated us well and local businesses were happy to see us too. Thank you to everyone who attended and for patronizing our series, the lake and local stores.

As for the event itself: we shared the launch with a boat tournament and it went smoothly. There was fog on the lake at launch and it burned off by mid-morning. Not unsurprisingly, many of the best fish were caught during the early bite, which took place between two fronts – a cold front that came through late Friday and the wind and light rain that arrived Saturday in the late morning. Several early leaders held position through the day and in the end the tournament was decided by the smallest margins. On a day like Saturday, every small upgrade made a difference. Here are a few numbers:

162 fish were caught

Nearly half the field (34 anglers) caught a limit

The gap between 10th place and 1st place was only 4.5 inches

The gap between 20th place and 1st place was only 7.25 inches

In the end, we paid out 10 places to faces new and familiar. Bob Dainton, who was director of Carolina Yakfish (the series that preceded CKA, but ended in 2013) won 1st place. By winning first place, Bob also qualified for the end of season CKA Tournament of Champions. Ron Gerber (now a CKA TD) placed 5th after not fishing with CKA for a couple of seasons. We also had two out of state anglers in the money: Casey Reed from Virginia won 4th fishing his second event with us, and Graham Reay from South Carolina won 6th place.

Anglers Denny Romero & Chris Ferguson (Chris is TD of the Plastic Pirates Trail) recently convened the directors of the 3 North Carolina Bass Kayak Fishing Trails to review how Denny and Chris compared the Hawg trough with a Ketch Board. After a careful discussion, CKA has renewed its commitment to allowing the Ketch board. The other Trails will follow different rules, so if you fish their events, contact them and ask about permitted boards (for example, Chris will only allow Hawg Troughs this season).

Pursuant to that discussion, the CKA directors want to remind anglers of a relevant rule regarding the scoring of fish, and what role a board plays in it. That rule is 10.f in the KBF Standard, and it is as follows:

“Blurry Photo/Length Unclear: Scored at the highest mark at which there is no doubt.”

In reviewing the Ketch board with a black design, we noticed low contrast between the fish tail and board. As you can see in Figure 1 below (courtesy of Denny Romero), the tail appears to be touching the 11” line, but a judge may have doubt (is that a piece of dirt?) and the rule clearly states there can be no doubt. Because the tail loses contrast between lines where there is shadow on the board, a judge could not be able to clearly determine where the tail ends. Therefore the “highest mark” applies, and the fish would be scored an 10.75″. By contrast, the fish in Figure 2 below is absolutely clear, there is no shadow and there cannot be any doubt about the length.